Business feature: Taits Rural

Date: 16.02.2023

Glen Malcolm and Ryan Stewart in the mower boneyard with a few pre-loved hay mowers

The warehouse where equipment is dismantled, checked, and readied for despatch

Glen Malcolm and Ryan Stewart in the mower boneyard with a few pre-loved hay mowers

The warehouse where equipment is dismantled, checked, and readied for despatch

Used mower specialists Taits Rural has grown to become one of the larger used dealers with mowers being distributed all over NZ

Grass and hay gear has been the mainstay of Glen Malcolm’s life for the last 20 years. And as demand for machinery parts increased over the years, and more companies began bringing in non-branded (pirate parts) gear, Glen saw an opportunity in the market for used parts.

"We started buying damaged used mowers back in 2018 dismantling them and selling the parts online," he says. It wasn’t too long before the hobby-styled business became a full-time undertaking, with that transition happening in 2021.

"Several hundreds of mowers and round balers later and thousands of parts shipped within New Zealand and internationally, the rest is history," says Glen.

To aid the workload, during the first couple of years, Glen engaged the help of contractors and engineers to do a lot of the physical dismantling, however, since the start of 2022, Ryan Stewart joined the team and runs the day-to-day parts despatch and customer service.

With the hundreds of mowers coming in Glen says there’s a number that can be repaired and on-sold at fair prices. "For us, it’s economic to carry out mower repairs, whereas many dealerships would not be able to make it work due to having to buy in parts, but for us and our thousands of parts in stock, it becomes very cost-effective," he says.

"As a result, we’re now one of the larger used dealers with mowers being distributed all over New Zealand." With a revamped e-commerce website that has in excess of 2000 parts, Glen says the site hosts several thousand visits a month, which has allowed the business to grow their international market.

"Although our online presence is excellent, we still encourage our clients to phone us, as we value the personal input. The website, however, allows many to just look up the part they want and purchase it there and then," says Glen.

"Being based in Southland is also an advantage to us due to the largest concentration of hay mowers anywhere in New Zealand," he says. "While we buy mowers from all over the country, the vast majority are still coming out of the lower end of the South Island."

For more details, contact 027 291 9979 or visit taitsrural.co.nz.

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